Editorials - 12/23/02

Cook sees award as win for all

We are delighted to report this story because we truly feel it couldn't happen to a nicer guy or a better ambassador for Jackson County.

Martin was born a stone's throw from his present Caney Fork home, educated at Cullowhee High and Western Carolina University and began his teaching career in Swain County.

While he was an undergraduate at WCU, his teachers were so impressed with his musical talent that they tried to steer him toward classical music and the concert stage.

But, as Asheville Citizen-Times columnist Bob Terrell (another Jackson County success story) wrote recently, "Martin was an old mountain boy whose favorite music was not classical. He loved gospel, and he loved to pound the piano while a quartet sang."

And for the last 38 years, that's exactly what Martin has done as pianist, manager and emcee for the nationally-acclaimed Inspirations quartet. Martin founded the group back in 1964 with four of his students at Swain County High.

We'll let Martin tell this part of the story.

"The Inspirations just happened," Martin said. "Folks always gathered at my dad's house on Caney Fork to sing, and after I got married and moved to Bryson City, people there did the same.

"The boys in the original group were the ones who came most often and stayed. It was kind of a natural weeding out," Martin said.

Two years later those students and their teacher took the stage in Atlanta at one of J.G. Whitfield's big all-night gospel sings, and the crowd of 5,000 went wild. With that show, the Inspirations moved to the forefront of Southern gospel music, a position they've maintained through the present. In addition to Martin's award, the Inspirations received Singing News 2002 Song of the Year honors for their chart-topping "I'll Not Turn My Back On Him Now."

Martin said his award was not just a win for him, but a win for the "home team," which he described as the "people who live and work in this area."

"It's just not a win for Martin Cook," he said. "It's a win for my friends, my family, the people I grew up with, my church, our community, our school system and our county."

As Martin sees it, when an individual from an area does better, we all do better. And that's a pretty good philosophy to have as we anticipate a new year.

Martin described his approach to keeping the Inspirations on top in terms that we could all incorporate into our work and family relationships.

"I try to get the people that work with me to do better," he said last week. "Everybody has a good side and a bad side. My job is to keep the good side turned up."

Back to Archive: 12/23/02.